Reunion
by Screamin Wookiee
Summary: A new threat has presented itself, coming with vicious attacks that render nearly all weapons useless. But lurking in the shadows of this threat is something truly dangerous...something that could take down even Samus...
1. Prologue Pt1

Metroid: Reunion

Chapter 1

Samus peered around the corner in the tech lab of the asteroid base. She saw a shadowy figure move behind some crates. She had no idea who it was, and she was a little scared to find out. But she couldn't let her fear prevent her from acting, she had a mission to complete. She began charging her arm cannon and lept into the room. At that insant something slammed into her back and pitched her forward onto the floor. The visor on her power suit cracked and her arm cannon refused to respond. The words "simulation failure" scrolled in front of her eyes. Samus sighed, she pressed the simulation end button on her right arm and watched her power suit and the world around her fade into plain black walls of the simulator room. A door on the north wall opened and a man with a round stomach and a long white beard walked in. "Another day of failure Samus?" the man mocked. "Yes general Farkus." She growled. Farkus shook his head. "You know Samus, most of the other bounty hunters here don't spend all of their simulator time fighting a hologram of themselves."

"Thats because most bounty hunters don't think fighting a hologram of themselves will make them better."

"True, most bounty hunters this day & age aren't married either." Samus narrowed her eyes into slits and glared at him. Samus had met a man named Derek two years ago when she went on shore leave. After one-and-a-half years of dating each other, they decided they should spend eternity together. "Are you saying I shouldn't of married Derek, general?" Farkus feinged surprise and stepped forward "I'm not saying that exactly...well maybe...uh, yeah, I am saying that." Samus rolled her eyes and stormed out of the sim room. Farkus ran after her. "Samus! Bounty Hunters are supposed to live alone and stuff like that. They don't need love or people."

"Right." Samus remarked. "Bounty hunters are only supposed care about money."

"Yes. Thats it exactly." Samus stopped and spun on her heel to face him. "Permission to speak freely general."

"Granted."

"I think thats a load of sh-"

"Watch your mouth Samus. Bad language is bad for your reputation."

"Hmph, I still don't see why you worry about my reputation so much. Its MY reputation, not yours."

"Yes but I'm the one who gets you these jobs in the first place. Since your reputation is going down I have to make excuses just so you can continue the Metroid hunt. People don't hire people without good reputations." Samus said nothing. It was true her reputation was going down but she really didn't care. She was getting sick of the Metroid hunting. But the Metroids were too dangerous and had to be eliminated. Personally she wished she could just quit her job. But sadly the only way out of the IBHA (Interplanetary Bounty Hunter Association) was to get fired. The stout general followed close behind Samus, still rambling on about her reputation. She ignored everything he said as they walked, not caring about his opinion in the least. "-And thats what makes a bounty hunter a bounty hunter. Anyway you'd better get back to your quarters and get ready for that mission tommorrow." Samus stopped suddenly and fixed him with a confused look. "Mission? What mission?"

"What do you mean 'What Mission?' " Farkus asked. "Didn't you read that memo I sent to you?" Samus bit her lip. "No, I didn't. I thaught it was another lecture of yours." General Farkus looked hurt. "You don't read my lectures? It's no wonder your reputation is going down. Since you aren't reading my lectures on-"

"The Mission, general?" Samus interrupted. "What is it?" He told her what it was.

>

Samus stood in her quarters in front of the glass case where her power-suit was held and looked at all of the upgrades she had installed on it over the years. The shoulder gaurds were larger now so they could house the new tracking system and advanced life support. The visor had been replaced countless time due to cracking under extreme blows from some of the creatures she faught while in caves and stuff. But now she had a visor made of the toughest clear-steel available. The visor also now had an emergency anti-crack field prototype installed. It was a prototype because the company that made it wanted Samus to test it while she was on her missions. And the suit itself was now made of the strongest (and rarest) metal in existence. Everything on it had changed, except for the arm cannon. The only thing about it that had changed was that it was easier to graft alien technologys onto it. Sure newer and more powerful weapons had been desinged since it's creation, but none of them really appealed to Samus. Mainly because they were stuffed into pistols instead of arm cannons which were quickly becoming outdated. "Another reason why my reputation is going down." she muttered. She opened the glass case and pressed a button on the side of it. The suit slide out of the case and settled on the floor a meter away.

She was about to get in it when the suit activated itself and aimed it's arm cannon at her. Samus froze and stared. She looked into the visor and saw nobody in it. _What the hell? _she thaught. The suit began advancing towards her. She backed up untill her back was pressed up against the door. She pressed the button to open the door but nothing happened. _Great_ she thaught _What else can go wrong today?_.


	2. Prologue Pt2

Chapter 2

The suit continued to advance while Samus tried desperately to open the door with her hands. Soon it stood about 1 meter away from her, it pressed a button on the arm cannon and took careful aim. She flinched when it fired a large sticky web which pasted her to the wall. Samus looked out of the side of her eye in confusion and wondered where the stick-net had come from. Suddenly the helmet flew off and a head popped up from inside the suit. Samus shook her head in disbelief.

"Hi Samus." Derek said. "Hold on I'll be out of this thing in a second." He ducked back into the suit and looked for the open button. When he finally found it the shoulder gaurds pulled back from the neck and revealed a hole just large enough for someone to slip in and out of. "Derek? What are you doing? And why did you fire a stick-net at me?" Derek hopped out of the suit and began cutting his wife out of the net.

"I didn't do that. The power-suit did." Derek said innocently.

"Oh, How?"

"That jerk, Farkus, had me install a security system to prevent burglery, and so in the case of you being injured inside the suit, it can carry out the mission by itself. I accidentally set it off while I was inside the suit."

"Hmm." Samus said pulling one of her arms free of the net. "Any other upgrades he had you install?"

"Yes. He also had me install a heat-sight visor enhancment, a 1500X zoom feature, a couple jet nozzles with plasma based fuel, and an advanced tracking device/comm unit." Samus nodded. "I hope you didn't mess with the mag-boots."

"Actually Farkus told me to install an artificial gravity unit. But I didn't, too complicated."

"Why didn't he have a maintenance engineer do this?"

"Because he's a cheap guy. The jerk didn't want to pay the money just to install some stuff that a baby could install. There." he finished cutting the net off the wall and began helping Samus pull the rest of it off of her. "So whats new Samus?" he asked.

"Oh, you know, fight myself in the simulater, lose to the simulater, lash out at Barin, get assigned to a mission that I hate."

"Mmm." Derek said as he pulled the last of the stick-net off Samus. "Whats the mission?" Samus opened her mouth but the comm unit rang and cut her off. She walked over to it and keyed the answer button. The image of her younger brother, Renick, appeared. He was twenty-three years old, handsome, a little on the short side, and was currently in studying to be a biologist. "Hi, Samus. Did General Farkus tell you about the mission?" Samus nodded. "Yes, he did." Renick smiled. "Good, I wanted to tell you that we'll be leaving a little sooner than expected." Samus cocked her head to one side. "How soon?"

Renick looked at his wrist chrono. "In about one hour. I'm on my way to the IBHA space station to pick you up now." Derek looked at Samus, wondering what was going on. Samus was silent for a moment. She had just heard about the mission five minutes ago and now they had to leave ahead of schedule. "Why do we have to leave so soon?" Renick's smile faded. "Because the professors I lied to have caught on to what I'm doing. They thaught I was going to study the life cycle of the Burion Bog-Snake. They tried to keep me on school grounds but I was already gone before they could do anything."

"What ARE you studying anyway Renick?" Derek asked curiously. "Metroids." Renick said plainly and then cut off the transmission.


	3. Prologue Pt3

Part 1: Chapter 3

The space between the Solar Biology University and the IBHA station is almost completely empty. In between these two points was a ship. This ship was _Aran's Pride._ And Renick Aran was it's pilot. The ship wasn't large, it had a maximum capacity of two passengers. The only rooms in the entire ship were the two sleeping quarters, and a small living area, which had once been a storage bay. The ship was seed shaped with wings shaped like boomerangs. Each wing had three concealed laser cannons as well as two external lasers.

Renick was reclining in the pilot's chair attempting to get a little shut-eye before he had to disengage the lightspeed drive. then the proximity alarms began beeping. He pulled himself into an upright position, and checked his long range sensors.The sensor scanshowed nothing that could cause the alarm to go off.

"Thats strange" he said to himself. Suddenly the whole ship shook and the ship's speed decreased to four-hundred mph. He checked his sensors again which still showed nothing. The ship shook again, this time more violently. Alarms went off while the damage displays clicked on, listing everything from system malfunctions to hull breaches. Renick again checked the sensors, and this time he set it to scan the interior of the ship. Three green blips, which signified life forms, appeared in the aft section of the ship inside the computer core housing. This confused him. The computer core housing was a cube no more than two inches on all sides. Yet the creatures had rocked the entire ship. How could something so small have so much strength? Intrigued by his discovery, he opend a small panel beneath the flight controls and pulled out a medical scanner and a datapad. He also pulled out a belt with various tools he would need, and a laser pistol...just in case. He rose from his chair and made his way to the back of the ship.

>

Samus raised a knife above her head. Beads of sweat rolled down her face. Derek, who was sitting in a chair next to the coffee table,looked up at her confused.

"Uh, Samus?" he asked "What are you doing?" Samus didn't answer. Instead she braught the knife down with all her strength and drove the it into a little doll of general Farkus. Derek looked at the doll, which stared at the ceiling with a stupid look on it's face and a hole in it's chest.

"I'm relieving some stress." she said finally. Samus walked away and put the knife back in the kitchen. Derek bit his lip. She was in a bad mood. He hated it when she was in a bad mood. Samus had a tendancy to be a little random when she was angry. Once she had drawn a sketch of tap dancing Metroid, and pasted it to his face. Another time she had tried to stuff general Farkus with cotton balls. And if anyone asked what she doing, she would say 'I'm relieving some stress'. She usually snapped out of it after 'relieving her stress', unless she was really angry. Which apparently she was. She came out of the kitchen with a flaming hunk of meat on a fork. She laid it down in the middle of the floor, and pulled a fire extinguisher out from behind her back. He watched her extinguish the fire and take everything into their bedroom. Samus came out a couple minutes later with the meat, fork, and fire extinguisher in a bag. She made her way towards the door.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"To relieve stress." she said plainly and disappeared. Derek sighed and went off to hide everything that was glass.

>

Renick pulled back the panel on the computer core's housing and peeked inside. And there, right on top of the main processor were the three life forms his sensors had detected. Renick pulled a vial from his belt and scooped one of the things into it. The creature was only a centimeter long. It had three sharp claws where a mouth would be, and two small spines on it's abdomen. On the underside, there was a clear membrane which allowed him to look at it's organs without having to dissect it. Renick pulled a small digital magnifier out of his belt to get a closer look. He directed it towards the creature's underside, and instantly recognized the clusters of energy storing spheres, with some connected to stringy membranesthat clung to the sides of the stomach. Metroids.

Renick had seen Metroids before. But those had been security camera recordings. He had even snuck into a laboratory once, and stolen some data cards with a lists and pictures of all the Metroids ever encountered. He never recalled seeing one like this in those records though. Which meant he had just discovered a new species! Excited more than ever he began using the medical scanner to obtain every bit of data he could about this new type of Metroid. He was too busy with the scanner that he never noticed that the other two had gotten away to other parts of the ship. They used their claws to cut holes in the panels and find their way towards a power conduit. They were incredibly hungry after the long wait for a ship to pass by. When they finally found one, they latched themselves onto it, and began draining power from it. As they did so, their size began to increase. And as this happened, they began draining more and more power from the ship. Soon the lights began flickering all over the ship.

Renick finally looked up from his specimen, and noticed the absense of the other two. He began to panic, but quickly regained his wits and pulled out the laser pistol. He set it to stun, totaly oblivious to theMetroids increased size,hoping the minor blast wouldn't kill the things. He walked cautiously down the corridor until he found a wall with to small flashing holes. He looked into one of the holes and couldn't believe what he was seeing. He didn't think the Metroids would grow when they consumed energy. He fumbled with his pistol and set it to full power. He stuck the nozzle into one of the holes and fired. The bolt shot out and hit the Metroid. But it's bodyabsorbed the bolt. The creatures continued to drain the ship of it's energy. Renick was at a loss. He couldn't go to lightspeed with so little power. And he couldn't destroy the beasts either. He tried to think of a way he could get out this mess, but the only thing that cam eot mind was sending out a distress signal. but if he did that, then he would get expelled from SBU. He would probablybe fined a large sum of money for stealing secret information on Metroids too. That is if they found out. He didn't HAVE to send a distress signal to SBU, or anyone he knew for that matter. Thankful for his sudden revelation, he made his way back to the control cabin. He went straight to the comm unit and opened a list of comm contact numbers. He thaught of calling his sister, but given the mood she was in when he called her, that probably wouldn't be a very good idea. He scrolled through the list until he came upon one that looked promising. He closed the list and called the number...

>

Farkus was in the middle of reading a tragic story, about two people who decide that they should eat each other, when his door chimed. He relunctantly rose and walked over to his door and opened it. Samus stood there with a bag in her hands. _Uh-oh_ he thought.

"Hello there Samus." he said pleasently "Whats in the bag?" Samus shoved the thing into his hands and ran away. Farkus stared until she rounded the corner. He closed the door and placed the bag in the incineration unit. He didn't want to know what was in the bag. He then sat back down in his chair and resumed his reading. Just as he sat down, the comm unit beeped. _Oh, great. Now what?_


	4. Prologue Pt4

Chapter 4

Samus ran through the corridor towards the hanger. General Farkus had just recieved a message from her brother asking for assistance. Why Renick had contacted _him_ instead of her was still a mystery. But that could wait, for now she just wanted to see her brother safely at the station, and _then _reprimand him for doing soething so stupid as to study something so dangerous.

She was in the hanger now sprinting towards her ship, _The Massive Metroid_, watching as mechanics unhooked power cables, and fuel pipes from it. That was good. They had filled the fuel tanks and recharged the weapons systems just like she'd asked. Still running, she charged up the boarding ramp and closed it behind her. Not wanting to waste any time she did an emergency start so as to skip the preflight checks. But now she had to wait. The hanger doors were still closed. Since the nobody had developed magcon technology yet, Samus had to wait untill everyone cleared out of the hanger before the giant doors could be opened. Which usually took two minutes. Samus couldn't wait that long. It was one thing when she was going on a mission that could wait, but when someone was in real danger, she panicked and felt jittery. Sometimes she became random like when she was angry. Her fingers twitched, threatening to pull the trigger on the flight yoke and fire the weapons. She watched the doors creep open ever so slowly. They were almost a quarter of the way open. Then they stopped. Samus blinked, waiting, and hoping, that they would continue to open, soon.

"Samus to Flight Control, what happened?" She said into the comm system.

"Sorry about that, but the door stopped functioning. We're reading massive power failures over the station as well." Then, as if the station had heard him, the lights in the hanger flickered and died. Samus sat in her ship, in the dark hanger, alone, and bored out of her skull. The comm system was down so she couldn't talk to anyone in flight control. She would occasionally see a mechanic in a vac-suit through the viewport by the running lights on the _Metroid_. She would also see some strange shapes move past as well. Shapes that didn't resemble any sentient species she was familiar with. But they resembled something she knew very well. Metroids. If that was true then she wouldn't be going to save her brother after all. But if it wasn't true, then she was wasting her time waiting. Samus powered up the ship's weapons and fired a full burst at the doors. A large chunk melted away creating a hole, through which she flew the _Metroid_ out. _I hope they understand about the hole_.

>

While Renick waited for help to arrive, he pulled out a small video recorder and trained it on the Metroids. The first two were no longer feeding off the power conduits, instead they were sitting in a corner resting. Unfortunately their offspring were running loose all over the ship eating everything. Renick now wore a vac-suit because some of them had thought it would be fun to eat one of the viewports. And unlike most Metroids, this species could survive in vacuum. Renick now wished that they hadn't been an undiscovered species. He had measured the rate at which they were eating the ship, along with how much of the ship was left, and determined that they would completely consume the ship in five hours. Five hours before he was flung into vacuum. Five hours until he would die of starvation in space. Or worse, die by being eaten, alive.

>

Derek was walking down a corridor when the power went out. earlier he had seen a strange creature latch onto the window in his and Samus' quarters. He had called security about it, but they had never come. He hadn't really thougt much of the creature until the window had started to crack. He had barely made it into the corridor before the window shattered completely, and exposing their quarters to vacuum. Now he stood in darkness. Alone. He heard noises like metal being scraped back and then chewed. The creature was coming after him. Derek felt around in the darkness for a security cache hidden in the walls. There would be weapons and a light in it. After feeling around for a half-hour he found one. After pulling it open he found the light, and several arm-cannons. Quickly he switched on the light and pulled the weapon onto his arm, which was pretty heavy. He had never liked arm-cannons, and generaly avoided using them. They were big and bulky and weren't very easy to swing around in one swift motion. But they were powerful. Perhaps thats why there was one in the security cache. He attatched the light to his arm-cannon, so his other hand would be free, and began walking towards the noise. Or maybe it was coming towards him. Either way it was getting louder. Then, when the sound was at it's loudest, it stopped. Derek pulled the charge weapon trigger, and a sphere of light began growing on the tip of the cannon. He aimed it in the general direction of where the sound had come from and released a bolt of energy. An explosion appeared in front of him, as well as the creature he had seen. It had grown considerably since he had seen it on the window. But how could that be? Perhaps this was a second one? He cocked the cannon into missle mode and pulled of a round. A missle hit square in the belly and detonated, splattering the creature all over the corridor. Derek sighed with relief, then cut it short as a swarm of smaller creatures came through the hole in the wall. a swarm of _thousands_. He had to get Samus before she left, he couldn't take them all by himself. He ran down the corridor in the direction he had been going. The swarm followed.

>

Renick looked out the rapidly expanding hole in the side of his ship, and saw his sister's ship. His hopes rose at the very sight of it. They hadn't been very high ever since the second generation of Metroids started releasing _their_ offspring. The reproduction rate of this new species was off the scale for any life form. At the moment he was sitting in what was left of the cockpit, which wasn't much. Just a chair attatched to a fusalauge via etal beam. And behind him the Metroids were finishing off the engines. He hoped Samus got to him before the they did, they were running out of ship to eat. He realized that he would have to jump into the airlock on Samus's ship. The one on _Aran's Pride_ was gone. Soon the _Metroid_ was within jumping distance. He merely had to wait for Samus to open the airlock, and let him in. Suddenly a etroid jumped on him and attatched itself to his vac-suit at the waist. Renick grabbed the thing and tried to pry it free. Samus appeared at the airlock and jumped over to him, arm-cannon firing. The bolts hit the Metroid, but just like before, it absorbed the bolts and grew. Renick tried to make a motion to make her stop, but a sharp pain paralyzed him. He screamed. He felt his skin disentegrate and be consumed by the beast. It was eating him. In last attempt to free himself he pulled the battery pack from his hold-out pistol, reversed it, and fired the pistol at point-blank range. The gun exploded, puncturing his vac-suit, but not harming the Metroid. Air rushed out of suit through the holes. Samus was nearly upon him and the Metroid, but he knew she would be too late. Then he saw white.

>

Samus slammed into the Metroid with the empty vac-suit and bounced off. Tumbling a short distance from it she fired a missle at it. And missed. The Metroid, startled by the missle, ran away at an incredible speed, along with the others. Samus groped for a piece of ship to grab and found one. Not letting go she turned back tot he empty vac-suit. Blood was on the waist and right glove. It had gotten him. Tears flowed from Samus' eyes and floated around her helmet. Her brother, her only brother had been taken from her, by an animal. No, not an animal, a Metroid, that hurt. She had, not too long ago, been part of a group to change Farkus' mind about hunting them down, to give her a break from destroying them. Now she regretted that. Now she wanted to kill them, wanted revenge, wanted to prevent such a tragedy from happening to someone else. Then she remembered that she had left the space station in possible danger. But she hurt too much to move. She had just lost her brother. _The station can wait_. _But the Metroidswill pay, they will pay_. Samus jumped back into her ship and flew in the direction of the Metroids.


	5. Memories

Derek crept down the hallway, his arm-cannon set to high power. The arm-cannon itself was strange, it was more or less a copy of his wife's, but not quite as powerful. Earlier that month a Chozo scientist had come on board to design some new weapons. He had been allowed to study Samus's power suit and recreate some elements of it's technology. Unfortunately the morphball function hadn't been one that could be replicated, being the thing of mystery it was. It certainly would have come in handy for Derek as he had just passed by an air duct. He could have rolled into it, gone through the air ventilation system and into the hanger. Or at the very least it would have made an excellent hiding place. Soon he came to a door, which he hoped would still be powered. But no such luck was with him. Worse even, Metroids were making their way towards him from behind, and through the walls! It was going to get really ugly, really fast, and he knew it. Derek checked his missle supply and frowned, only had four missles left. That had been something the Chozo scientist hadn't been able to replicate due to lack of funds: a capacity for two-hundred missles.

But now wasn't the time to worry about it, He was running out of time. Screeches and bizarre clicking noises could be heard down the hall, they were getting closer. Inspiration struck just in time, and he aimed the weapon down at the ground. Switching to the power beam he fired and began weakening a portion of the floor. When there was a hole about the size of his head, he fired a missle into it, enlarging the hole further. Then the Metroids cought up with him, his time was up. Without thinking about whether he would fit through the hole or not, he jumped. But his actions were in vain, the artificial gravity on the station gave out and left him hanging in midair. A prime target for the Metroids to feast on.

"

Everyone watched in utter horror as the Metroids pounced on Derek. One latched onto his face, while others grabbed his limbs. When the pack of beasts broke up Derek was gone.

The video from the security camera ended, and the lights in the classroom came back on making the students wince. Samus removed the data cube from the holoprojecter and put it in her pocket. Behind her, the students murmered, and conversed among themselves over what they had just seen.

"As you already know, this was the only recording that survived the Metroid attack on IBHA Space Station 4. This was also our first encounter with the new species now designated as Omicron class Metroids."

A hologram of the creature appeared, and hovered in the air for her students to see.

"As you can see, it closely resembles an alpha class Metroid in appearance, except without the bony plates on it's back. When we obtained a live specimen, It showed an insatiable appetite for energy of all types: electrical, fire, ice, life energy, Phazon, everything. Like all Metroids, it also has the ability to grow in size by consuming any one of these energys, while storing what it can use later in special organs called the Central Nuclei. Scientists have tried to harvest the energy stored in this organ, but all attepts have-"

The bell rang right at that moment and the students began picking up their things.

Samus swore quietly. "Ok everybody, we'll continue the lesson next week. Don't forget that your reports on Flickerbat physiology are due on Monday, no exceptions."

Some students groaned about being reminded, while others simply looked smug about it. Soon everybody had filed out of the room, and Samus was left all alone in the classroom, grading papers and pulling together a lesson plan for the coming week. She reached into her pocket for a pen, and pulled out the data cube instead. She stared at the cube for a long moment before placing it on her desk next to a holo of Derek and Renick. Samus slumped into her chair, tears ran down her cheeks as memorys of that day flooded back: her ship pulling alongside Renick's, the empty vac-suit, chasing after the Metroids...leaving Derek and everyone on the space station to die...All her friends, gone. Even General Farkus, who Samus had never really liked, hadn't survived that attack. The IBHA had fallen apart, and the Galactic Federation became her new employer. And now, fifteen years after the incident, she was retired from bounty hunting, and a professor of biology. She didn't regret the choice to become a teacher, only the one she had made fifteen years ago. And she would do anything, to undo it. Even if it only allowed her brother and husband to live for just one day longer.

_But, such wishes are pointless. Whats done is done, and the past has been written. I only wait until time claims me as well._

Scooping up several papers, she stuffed them into a folder. Then she left the classroom, and the pain the day had brought upon her.

"

_Do you see her yet?_

_Yes, I see her._

_Is she the one we want?_

_Beyond a doubt._

_And the message?_

_Has already been planted._

_Excellent._


	6. Visitor

Chapter 6

Samus opened the unlocked her apartment door and walked in. The main living area was spotlessly clean, it was no more than 9 meters long, and 6 meters wide. A small sofa lay along the north wall across from a flatscreen display, and a comfy looking chair was set beside a coffee table in the north/west corner. A doorway on the east wall connected it to a small dining room, which contained nothing more than a table with two chairs, and a door leading to a kitchen area. The south wall also had a door. This one led to the sleeping/personal quarters and bathroom.

Her power-suit walked in from the dining room. "Hello, Samus," It said in a pleasent male voice "you have returned earlier than usual." After retiring from bounty hunter work, Samus had turned her power-suit into droid because she had lacked a need for it. She had also been lonely as hell.

"That shouldn't be a surprise, IR6Y" Samus remarked scornfully "I'm always early on Friday. Remember?"

"Of course." the automaton replied, returning to the kitchen "I am most unobservant of this phenomenon."

Samus rolled her eyes. _Phenomenon?_ It was _routine_. How he hadn't been able to catch onto this, she couldn't understand. But then again, the droid brain she had installed into the powersuit had belonged to an old philosopher. And that philosopher had made the droid to be a companion with whom he could discuss his theorys.

Samus lay her folder, as well as some other things, onto the coffee table and lay herself down on the sofa.

"I hope nothing wrong happened at the university today." IR6Y commented from the kitchen.

"Nothing of considerable interest." Samus replied "Just the normal students handing in reports, and students reporting that something ate their homework."

"You sound as if that is a normal problem."

"It IS."

"Oh." IR6Y said after a slight delay. "Perhaps you should take steps to eliminate this problem."

"You mean other than not trusting my students?" Samus asked.

"Not trusting your students wouldn't do anything." IR6Y stated "Perhaps...you should try rewarding the ones who do their homework with less-"

"I don't like where that's going, IR6Y." Samus interupted.

"Sorry, Samus. Perhaps you should forget it."

_Gladly_. She stretched a little before settling into a comfortable position, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

_Hello, Samus. Did you miss me? I've missed you. More than you could tell_.

Samus ignored the voice. She was dreaming, and anything in a dream didn't matter to her. Pictures of the dream began to form. She saw a silhouette of a man she thought she should recognize. But without the face, he was a mystery.

_I don't have much time to do this_. The man said. _You must listen to me._

"Who are you?" She asked.

The man seemed to glare at her a bit, although not in a malicious way. _Someone you used to know. Someone you cared about. Someone who cared about you..._

Samus stared at him harder, struggling to remember who it could be. But she was cautious, and didn't risk raising her hopes. "If you were really who you say you are, I still have no way of knowing that it's truly you."

The man shrugged. _There are many ways I could prove it to you. But I won't. Not now._

"What do you want, anyway?"

_What many people seek, and few people get: Help. I need your help right now, Samus._

"Why would someone with the power to speak with people in their minds need help?" She countered

His forehead rose on one side, as if he had raised an eyebrow. Then, his face illuminated just enough for her to see a wicked smile form on his lips. _Many people who seem like they can take on anything, are really nothing more than pawns in the grand scheme of things, Samus. Like you were with the IBHA. General Farkus and his demands to seek out any remaining Metroids. And you following his orders without delay. You knew they saw you as disposable, as they did all bounty hunters._

That shocked her. Nobody knew what Farkus had had her doing. Not even after fifteen years had she disclosed that information._"_How do you know that?" She squeaked out.

The man's smile got colder. _Wouldn't you like to know._

The dream stopped suddenly as she felt herself being shaken. IR6Y was standing beside her, shaking her with his one hand.

"Dinner is ready, Samus." he said, pleasently.

1

Dinner was always quiet for Samus since the days after Derek died. IR6Y sat with her at the table, even though he couldn't eat, to keep her company. Regardless, niether of them ever said much of anything. Except tonight.

"You're sure nobody was outside just now?" Samus asked for the third time.

"I assure you, Samus" IR6Y answered sounding a bit annoyed "that no people have visited in many months... Except for that one man who claimed to be a Jehovah's Witness."

Samus bit her lower lip. Someone had to have been outside the building talking to her. But if IR6Y hadn't detected anybody then there couldn't have been."

"However..." IR6Y began "I did detect a male human presence just outside the door earlier today. After that, I haven't detected anything else."

"Did he knock on the door, ask to come in, anything?" Samus asked with her mouth full.

"No."

Samus sighed. "Someone had to have been near this building." she murmered.

IR6Y cocked his head to one side "Who had to have been here?" he asked.

Samus looked at him. If she told him he would probably think she was dreaming or something. What if it had been a dream? A dream braught on by the onslaught of emotions after watching that security camera tape. But it couldn't have been. She knew what she had seen! It had felt completely real! But she had to realize that it might have been, in fact, a dream. Suddenly she didn't feel very hungry. Her heart ached. It ached for the people she had lost in the past. People she hadn't been able to save. Slowly, she stood up and excused herself from the table. She made her way to the bedroom, flopped down on the bed, and cried quietly to asleep.

1

IR6Y heard her quiet sobs of sorrow, wishing there were something he could do. The problem was that he was a mechanical entity, and she was a biological being. That didn't seem like a large difference, especially when considering that it didn't really matter what shell you were in, so long as you felt feeling towards others. But, there were still so many differences. For example; her species had been around for tens of thousands of years, where androids had only been perfected four-hundred years ago. Also, she had a soul. When she died, it would leave her body, and leave to another realm they called the afterlife. He was a personality program that could be transferred from system to system. He could live forever in this world, but he could never move on to the next. Taking all of this into consideration, he knew that no amount of philosophic data could ever help him to understand human emotions, which he lacked.

Although, how does one wish to make someone happy, if they do not possess emotions? He would have to give that further thought. _Thought... thought... codeword "thought", ceasing all recording functions...transmitting copy A.I. Clyde into Samus's subconcious... cannot comply... Samus is not yet sleeping... waiting for standard human shutdown to occur..._


	7. It Begins

Chapter 7

_Hello, Samus. Did you miss me? I missed you._

Samus stirred in her sleep, but did not wake. The shadow reappeared in her dream, just as menacing as before.

"What do you want from me?" She asked it.

_Only what I've already asked for: your help._

"With what?"

_You'll see._

Samus' dream self crossed her arms "What makes you think I'll do this?" She asked.

_The information I'm about to show you._ He replied dryly. He waved his hands and a map of the known galaxy presented itself. Near the galaxy's core was a small blinking blip. The shadow pointed at it and the point magnified, revealing a seed shaped ship with boomerang wings. A line pointed at it, displaying the name _Aran's Pride_ in bright yellow letters.

Samus' eyes bulged, and her mouth gaped open.

_You know this ship, don't you? _asked the shadowSamus didn't answer. _That's what I thought._ he said smiling.

"I thought it had been sent to a scrap yard." She said quietly. "Who's the owner?"

_I don't know, but I'm working on finding it._

_"_I wonder if they'd sell it..." She wondered.

_There's more._ The shadow told her. He pointed to a floating ring about two lightyears from the ship, magnifying it. _The IBHA station from fifteen years ago._ He explained.

"It looks pretty beat up." Samus commented.

_From here, yes. Scans taken earlier, however, reported power flowing through several decks, and a mass amount of life forms on board. Most matching with readings that indicate sentient life._

"What about the others?"

_Metroids. Omicron class._

Samus' blood froze. The last time she had run into the beasts they had killed her brother, and her husband. Now there was a ship full of them. "What's the purpose of showing me all of this, anyway?" She asked.

_There's some data on the station I need for...a science experiment. _He answered.

"What kind of experiment?"

_That's irrelevent to you. You have two days to arrive at this point_. the shadow pointed to a star three lightyears from the old IBHA station._ I will await your arrival_.

* * *

"How did I let myself get talked into doing this?" Samus asked IR6Y, donning her power-suit's helmet. She had just spent all morning taking him out of the power-suit, and searching for a new suitable body; she hadn't found one either. His head rested on a table near a vase filled with flowers. He had personally requested this position, so that he, "might contemplate why people enjoyed the presence of flowers", and to "ponder the meaning they often bring to others". But that was for later. Right now, his mind was replaying Samus' conversation with the shadow as she had remembered it.

"The way I see it, your desire for Renick's old ship is what convinced you." He told her "A single selfish desire amidst a grander endeavor. You saw his need as an excuse to reclaim family property."

Samus nodded. It could be true; IR6Y's philosophical explanation's usually were. But somehow that didn't seem right. She felt like there was something else that had made her take on the mission.

"Are you certain you have everything you need?" IR6Y asked.

"This suit and my ship are the only things I've ever needed for missions." Samus answered. She powered the suit up, and the familiar hum of it's Chozo technology buzzed in her ears. Electricity surged through her own veins as it fused with her body, making her and the suit as one. Readings on her vitals displayed at the top of her view, showing her how much damage the suit could take. Proximity detection and missle capacity were displayed on the left and right sides, respectively. There was something else though; a small tingling in the back of her neck. Samus ignored it, not wanting to remember where the tingling came from. But if the time came... No. Not again.

She turned to IR6Y, making sure that his lone eye could see her completely. "What do you think?" She asked.

IR6Y looked at her for a moment, trying to find an appropriate human response to such a question. "It suits you." he said at last. Samus nodded her agreement.

* * *

Samus sat in her ship, waiting. She was waiting for security clearance to leave the system in the civilian lane. Normally she wouldn't have had to do this, but her commision with the Galactic Federation had expired a few years ago; she no longer had instant clearance. Samus didn't mind, she wasn't in any particular hurry like she would've been several years ago. Waiting allowed her to run extra diagnostics on her ship's systems; which desperately needed them. She hadn't flown out of system in years, so it was overdue for even rudimentary maintenance. The only thing that didn't need maintenance, were the weapons; which were nonexistant now. Weapons weren't allowed on civilian ships, and had been stripped off four years ago.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Derek's voice whispered in her ear. Samus whipped around in her chair, only to face an empty seat. She sighed heavily. It had been a memory of him speaking, brought on by flying through space. Derek had loved flying. He had taken her out into the center of a nebula when he proposed to her. The simple beauty of the swirling clouds of color had made the moment eternal in her mind.

"Ship 238, you have clearance to leave the system." the flight controller told her over the comm. Samus snapped back to the present, and sent the ship surging foreward. Then she braked, _hard_. A fleet of ships had come out of hyperspace just in front of her, none of them bearing any recognizable markings or designs. All of them had blood stains splattered on them, and spikes sticking out from the fuselage; weapons maybe?

The commanders of the ships either didn't see Samus, or didn't care. The ships raced towards her at high speeds, red electricity spewing from the sharp protrusions at civilian and security ships alike. One knicked Samus' cockpit, blowing in the windshield and leaving vacuum in the once pressurizerd environment. Samus was glad to be in her power-suit as she would have suffocated without it. The red ships continued their advance on Earth, leaving debris and destruction in their path. Samus watched them dispatch smaller craft, single man fighters, which took the slaughter down to Earths surface. She was about to turn around and help when her comm unit chirped. Not the one in her ship, but the one built into her helmet. Samus opened a secure channel.

"Samus! Are you alright?" A familiar male voice asked.

"I little burned up, but alright. What's going on?"

"It's the Krikens, they've launched a surprise attack on Earth. You need to pull out of there, _now!_"

"What?" Samus asked unbelievingly "You want me to leave them here?"

"There's more important matters to attend to. Trust me."

Samus started turning her ship around, watching the battle as she rotated away from it.

"I'm reading some damage on your ship. Can you make hyperspace?" The voice asked.

"With a forcefield in place, the cockpit should remain safe. I'm good." Samus paused, then asked "Who, and where, are you?"

"I'll tell you once your at the coordinates." The voice informed her "I won't be able to meet in person, but I will be able to advise you over your comm unit."

Perfect. She pulled the lever, stars turned to lines, and lines into infinite swirling colors. Sighing heavily, Samus clenched her hands into fists. What were the Krikens doing in her galaxy? And why had they attacked Earth? She could remember meeting one Kriken in her lifetime, and that was Trace. Actually, it wasn't really a meeting, more like a passing by while trying to kill each other. She never did see Trace, or another Kriken since then. Until today that is. She tried to put it out of her head. Thinking about everything other than the mission at hand could get her killed, and that was the last thing she needed.


	8. Ghost Ship

Samus ran down one corridor, only to find another intersection with three other paths. None seemed to be correct, and they always brought her to another one. She took the corridor directly ahead, hoping that it would at least take her farther away from where she had started. But another intersection was all that awaited her.

_Samus! Help me!_

She chose the direction in which the voice had come from, running the whole way. Fear gripped her like a vice, sweat pouring down her face. She wouldn't fail this time.

_Please, Samus! Help me!_

This time the voice came from behind, the way she had come. She turned around and sped back to the intersection. When she arrived, the sight made her sink to her knees. Renick's empty vac-suit lay next to a damaged weapon splattered with metroid and human blood. In the air above them, was an omicron class metroid. It stared at her, a ravenous hunger reflecting in it's eyes. It's screetch meant little to her as it latched onto her face. She didn't try to fight, nor did she want to. She wanted it to end. And end, it did.

"Samus!"

"Huh?" Samus looked up, dazed. Drool hung from mouth, covering the microphone in her helmet. In front of her hung a large star, it's red-gold light burning her eyes. She shut her eyes and groaned.

"You awake?" Asked the voice.

"Yeah," She said yawning "I'm awake."

"Uh-huh. I've been trying to call you for five minutes now." He informed her "It's not right to keep one waiting."

_Oh, shut up._ She thought. So what if she had slept a little? It's not like they were under attack. "Where are we?" She asked.

"At the specified coordinates."

"Which is... where?"

"About 30,000 lightyears from earth."

Samus' lip twitched. Whoever this guy was, he certainly enjoyed being vague. Hell, she didn't even know who _he_ was.

"You'll need to-"

"Hold it." She interupted "Just who are you anyway?"

"You're not going to do anything until I tell you, are you?"

"No." She answered.

"Very well then. My name is Cenir. Happy?"

Samus' top eylelids dropped, shaping her eyes into half circles "Sort of, but it will have to do. Now then, Cenir, what next."

"Check your scanners, there should be a floating mass on the other side of the star."

Samus did as she was instructed and confirmed what he said. "It's a space station."

"A _Space Pirate_ space station." He corrected her "One of the only stations to hold secret Kriken information."

A confused look came over Samus' face "Why would they have secret information from the Krikens?"

"They once allied with the Krikens," Cenir explained "but they were later betrayed by them."

"Is that why they retreated into the Unknown Regions?"

"Precisely. They fear the Krikens might find them and destroy what's left of them." There was a brief pause "Alright, that's enough galactic history, we have work to do."

"What did you want me to do here?" Samus asked.

"The information on that space station is vital to the mission, you'll need to extract it before we can move on."

Samus laid in a course for the station, and engaged the engines. As she closed in on the station, the tingling sensation in the back of her neck increased in intensity, and a blue light shone from her eyes. She shut her eyes and shook her head. She swore she wouldn't resort to that. Sometimes, however, it couldn't be helped; proximity to some materials could trigger it. Electricity was already flowing through her body, hot and pure. She grabbed the flight stick and turned the ship around, flying away from the station.

"What are you doing?" Cenir asked "Why are you turning around?"

"I'm sorry, Cenir, there's... something wrong." Samus increased the distance between her and the space station. The light in her eyes faded, and the tingling stopped. She stopped the ship and stayed there. Cenir wasn't happy about it.

"What went wrong?" he asked angrily.

"The ship it, uh, no! I-I, ohhh..." It was on the tip of her tongue, but she wasn't sure if she could trust him. It was her secret, one she wished had been left behind. "Just a... little anxiety, I guess." she lied.

Cenir sighed "I need you to do this, Samus. I can't have you getting scared over going aboard an old space station. Too much is at stake."

"I understand." She said closing her eyes. She would have to get it over with quickly then. Turning the ship around, she headed back towards the station. The blue light and the tingling returned, but it didn't progress any farther than that. She didn't pay much attention to the ships proximity, instead trying to figure how long she could remain on board until it took over. A jolt brought her back to reality. The ship had landed. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and headed for the hatch.

"Cenrir?" Samus asked "How close is the nearest computer console?"

"The nearest _functional_ console is down in engineering."

_Damn._ "How long will it take to get there?"

"With power down all over the ship, one hour."

_Damn it!_

* * *

All was quiet aboard the station, not a sound was to be heard. Of course, without air pressure, no sound could exist. But, if you were to put your ear to a door on deck-12, section-3, you could her something. No, it wouldn't be the hum of a power unit, or the click of a lock opening. It would be more like, metal striking metal, slowly grinding it into a pile of dust. Then you would die as an object burst through a new hole in the door, leaving behind super-heated fragments of you, and metal dust. The object was Samus.

"Ok, Cenir, I'm on deck-12, section-3. Where to now?"

"Your progressing through this too fast." Cenir reprimanded "If you don't watch it this whole thing will blow up in your face."

Samus rolled her eyes. Using her screw attack to grind through doors wasn't going to blow the station up. A well placed blast to it's main reactor would do that for her. "Just tell me where I need to go." She commanded.

Cenir breathed heavily "Head down the hallway until you see a hatch. Open it, and crawl into the maintenance tube."

Samus did as she was instructed. Going into Morphball mode, she dropped into the tube. She rolled foreward two meters, then fell into the main access junction, from which, maintenance tubes spread out in all directions. Samus was about to ask when Cenir's answer came.

"Take the northern most tube."

Samus rolled into it, frozen grease and other unsanitary liquids kicked up like pebbles as she passed. Eventually, the tube ended. Samus didn't bother asking for directions. She bombed the hatch and burst out into a science lab. Capsules for holding mutant specimens were strewn throughout the room. Some were broken, while others held the skeletons of various experiments. A familiar blue substance was splattered on the wall and floor. She leapt over it all, only getting a small amount on the bottom of her boot. Samus didn't notice it, and, before anything could be done about it, was absorbed by the power-suit.

"What now?" Samus asked.

"Take the corridor just outside east, at the end is a turbolift shaft." He replied "It'll send you straight to engineering."

"Anything waiting there for me?"

Short pause.

"No. Nothing on scanners."

Samus nodded. She was about to leave when her blood began to boil. Her trigger finger started having spasms, bolts of chozo energy going everywhere. A missle fired by accident hit a container of Phazon, the resulting explosion throwing her into the corridor, and erasing every memory of that room ever being there. Samus groaned and got up from the floor. Cenir was yelling questions at her, but the ringing in her ears kept her from understanding. Limping down the corridor, she found the turbolift shaft. This time, however, she actually opened the door. Peering down the turbolift shaft, she noticed that the turbolift car was stuck on the level below. She engaged her Scan Visor, and checked for weaknesses.

_Turbolift car: Manufactured by _Interspace Corps_., installed in this installation 8 years ago. Residual energy readings show signs of recent activation two standard days ago._

_Activated? By what, or... who?_ "Cenir, I thought you said nobody was aboard."

"There isn't, why do you ask?"

"There's a 'lift car in this shaft; it was activated two days ago."

"Impossible." Cenir scoffed "Nobody's been in here since it was abandoned. Get past the car, and keep going."

"There are residual energy traces in it. Someone was in here recently." Samus objected.

"How do you know that it wasn't an energy surge?" He challenged.

"And how do you know someone isn't in here?"

"Look I-Hold on a sec." Static burst through the comm briefly "Get going, now. The sooner the better."

Gun fire sounded over the comm before erupting into static again.

"Cenir! What's going on?"

"I gave you an order." Cenir snarled "Now move!" More weapons fire.

Switching into Screw Attack mode, she began grinding away at the lift car's roof. Hoping that Cenir was alright, and that she wasn't running into a trap.


	9. Traitor

"You are sure this can work, De'Tan?" asked Fihker, captain of the Space Pirate warstation _Shinarr._

"Absolutely!" De'Tan answered excitedly "If we can get enough phazon from Talon IV, we could even create a generator capable of opening the dimensional rift."

Fihkar stroked his beard in thought. "How long would these modifications take?" he asked.

"Anywhere between three standards weeks to a month, captain."

"Make sure they are made within the month." Fihkar ordered "I fear that we may be betrayed again very soon."

"Again, captain? But our people could not possibly withstand another attack. They would run all over us! We wouldn't be able to-"

"Which is exactly why I want these modifications made, and the efforts on Project Alpha doubled."

De'Tan bowed his head in apology "Yes sir. Everything shall be done as you command." Then he turned and left the captains office. De'Tan was troubled by what the captain had said as he hastily made his way to the lab. Some new experiments with the Phazon had been started earlier in the week, and the results had yet to be assessed for the day. Entering the lab, he noted the presence of security officers and criminals who were sentanced to death.

"May I ask why you taint my lab with the presence of these traitors?" De'Tan asked, directing his question at the large officer in charge.

"They are here for the testing of the new creature." The officer informed him.

De'Tan cocked his head to one side. "They are here for some form of final entertainment?"

The officer shook his head. "For execution."

That was unexpected. "Execution? But the test subject is unstable! It could either explode or become even more agressive as it cuts them down!"

"The captain has ordered the test of it to evaluate it's efficiency and success." The officer leaned down to look him in the face, eye-to-eye. "Or do you have a problem with that?"

De'Tan wasn't intimidated easily, and stared right back at him, a sneer that matched that of the officer. "I will allow this, "test". But only in a shielded chamber, with a full security detail outside the door, one inside the monitering room, and another outside the door."

"Very well then." The officer stood at full height, and barked the order into a commlink, then, after a brief exchange, placed it back on his belt. "Your security details are in motion as we speak. Your test has been assigned to cargo bay three, for it has the monitering station you installed. Now, get the creature, and we shall escort these traitors to their final resting place."

De'Tan strode across the room, and pressed a button on the wall. A large holding capsule portruded from it, and rested itself onto a hoverbed. It was three meters in length, and one meter wide. Inside was a blue octopus-like creature. It had six tentacles, a large bulbous head, and a small device on it's back. Project Alpha, half living, half machine. A cybernetic recreation of Metroid Prime. Only more powerful. Right now it was sleeping, but that would change as soon as they reached cargo bay three.

"It's grown since yesterday." De'Tan commented.

"Yes." his assistant called out from a nearby desk "Nearly sixty-four centimeters on each tentacle, and it's head has doubled in volume."

"Incredible. But also a problem."

"Sir?"

"If this thing continues to grow, it could break free of it's confinement. And if that happens..." He trailed off, allowing for an ominous pause to tell his assistant of the calamity that would take place. He pushed the hoverbed towards the doorway, stopped, picked up a datapad, and left. The journey to cargo bay three wasn't as long as one might expect. The lab was situated on the same deck for it's easy access to materials held there. But it was even more convienient since it had been modified and transformed into a shielded test chamber, one suitable for containing even Metroid Prime. A security detail was waiting outside. An indication that his order had been taken out. They admitted him into the monitering area, where he placed one end of the capsule into a recepticle in the wall. A large glass window allowed them to view the large test chamber, which was currently occupied by the prisoners from the lab. Computer terminals were lined up in front of the window, displaying the chamber's enviromental data and the vitals of every being inside.

"Are we ready to proceed?" He asked the nearest scientist.

"Yes, sir."

De'Tan sighed "Awake and release Metroid Prime Alpha." The scientist did as instructed. They looked over at the capsule, where Metroid Prime Alpha lay. It opened it's glowing red eyes and zoomed out the opening into the test chamber. It hovered in mid air for a moment, waiting, as the device on it's back activated it's tentacles sequenciously.

"Metroid Prime Alpha has been fully activated." an assistant announced from one station. "It's vitals are... abnormal?"

De'Tan whipped around to face her. "Abnormal? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's reading's are off the scale. I'll have the sensors recalibrated to it's new signs in a moment." Metroid Prime was pulsing with a blue light that started in the head, and traveled down it's extremeties.

"Sensors recalibrated." the assistant announced. "But it's power levels are still off the scale. In it's current state, it could power the station for a year."

De'Tan heard her, but what he heard filled him with horror. Metroid Prime alpha was already dispatching the criminals, the method it chose was most disturbing. It sent a tentacle into a criminal's face, and sent a jolt of electricity through her. Blue growths appeared on the body afterwards, showing that it was capable of producing phazon.

"Do you have the enhanced phazon weapons?" De'Tan asked a security officer.

"Yes. We were outfitted with them specifically for this."

"Good."

Metroid Prime Alpha finished off the last criminal and started looking around for more. Blue bolts of electricity leapt off the creature, and into the bodies. They rose from the ground, glowing and full of life.

"Sir! Criminal life signs have returned! What should we do?"

"We wait." He told her. "We must properly evaluate their abilities as well as MPA's."

The assistant bowed her head. "As you wish."

* * *

"How many died?" Fihkar asked.

"One-hundred-and-sixty, sir." De'Tan answered. He looked like he had just been beaten with the active end of a power line. Any hair that had been on his body had been turned to ash. He had burns all over his body, and a wound on his left upper-arm was glowing an unnatural blue color.

"And the creature?"

"Currently in stasis. We were able to herd it into a stasis tube, and place it in cargo bay three. We're ready to space it the second a breach is reported, and tactical is standing by to destroy it."

Fihkar smiled. "A brilliant success! I congratulate you, De'Tan." he held a knife in his hand and pointed the tip at De'Tan's neck. "It's a shame it came too late."

De'tan stared at the point, the expression on his face unchanged. "Traitor."

"Yes," Fihkar nodded "It would seem so."

"How much did they pay you? several million credits? Two warships? Maybe a planet for you and your wife."

"Life, De'Tan. They've promised our species _life_. And in exchange, they wanted the designs for Project Alpha, and those of the Phazon generator we won't have time to build."

"We would've had time to build it if not fore your treachery."

"Perhaps. But then we'd be running from the truth."

De'Tan cocked his head in question.

Fihkar put down the knife and raised the gun that had been grafted onto his arm after becoming a warrior. "The Kriken are going to destroy us, De'Tan. You should've known this long before I did."

"I'm a scientist, not a tactician. I bury my nose in books and study. I do not perform tactical simulations to run an army, or trouble myself with politics."

"Which turned out to be you're undoing." Fihkar's smile turned into a line "How can you live with yourself now? Knowing that expanding your knowledge brought you naught but death."

"I suppose I won't, seeing as you'll kill me in a moment."

Fihkar smiled again.

"But, please, allow me the honor of last words, _captain_."

The traitor shrugged "Be my guest."

De'Tan turned on his commlink, but left it on his belt. "Omicron-theta three-two-eight-nine."

Fihkar's smile shrank a little "What fool wastes his final breathe like that?"

Now De'Tan smiled "One who has spent his life hoping to bring people like you to justice."

An explosion rocked the ship. The look on Fihkar's face was one of surprise, De'Tan took a small amount of joy from it.

"Not expecting anyone so soon I presume?" he taunted. "Or perhaps it's because they haven't arrived yet."

"What did you do?" The gun was still pointed at De'Tan, who still wasn't showing any sign of intimidation.

His smiled broadened. "I've released your worst nightmare." Blue growths sprouted from the wound on De'Tan's left arm, small arcs of electricity jumping from it. Fihkar fired, but it was useless. De'Tan took the bolt in the forehead and absorbed it. Just before the warstation made a random jump into hyperspace, all the air inside it vented.


	10. Vague Details

De'Tan was tired. The _Shinarr_ had taken heavy damage in hyperspace, and was now little more than a eight-hundred-thousand ton coffin. Everybody on board had been killed, except for him, by Metroid Prime Alpha. Soon, he too, would pass away. He had to work quickly. His time was limited, and he had to record his last wish.

"Begin recording session." he told the computer. "Save this message in the main data core, and in all subordinate computer systems." He waited as the computer executed his commands and readied itself for the task it would perform. _I can't believe it's come to this. After all these years of succesful conquest_. The computer console beeped. It was ready.

"Greetings, to whoever finds this message." He began. "I am De'Tan, Chief Researcher of the warstation _Shinarr_." He began coughing loudly, blood flowing from his mouth. De'Tan grabbed a hypospray equipped with a medicine to help stop the flow of blood. Unfortunately, it would also kill him much faster. But it had to be done.

"I don't have much time left," he continued. "but I must make sure that everything that has transpired here is not forgotten." He coughed again, but no blood came this time. "You may have already seen the videos from the security cameras, and already know of the biological and mechanical monstrosity that is Metroid Prime Alpha, and the destruction that it can bring." De'Tan shook his head. "After I released it on my comrades, I was placed under it's command. Everybody I killed, everything I destroyed, all of it was the direct result of it's control over me. By the time I was able to counter this, it was too late. The _Shinarr_ was beyond repair, the few lingering people died before I could treat them, and..." He paused and closed his eyes. A lone tear ran down his cheek. "Lirtatha, my people's homeworld, had been destroyed by the Kriken. Now, the Space Pirates are scattered across the galaxy, reduced to failure like others before us." De'Tan clenched fists and shuddered with anger. His eyes became slits, and lit anew with a burning flame that seemed to consume his face. "That, is why I haved recorded this message. My final desire, is that you would take Metroid Prime Alpha, my last creation. Use it to annihilate the Kriken and all that they stand for. Galactic Federation, Space Pirate, Vozon, I don't care who you are. Administer justice on our behalf, before they destroy what's left of the galaxy." De'Tan went into another coughing fit that would never stop. He wheezed out "End message." before finally dying.

De'Tan's image disappeared, leaving the air in front of Samus empty.

"Was that it?" Samus asked Cenir.

"That was it." The man confirmed. "That, is the reason the Kriken have targeted Earth. They fear Metroid Prime Alpha."

"But the Galactic Federation doesn't have it."

"Nobody has it. Nor does anybody know where it is."

"So, does that mean you're going to have me look for it?"

"No. I never intended for you to find it. I merely needed you to pull that information from the _Shinarr_."

Samus raised an eyebrow. "The point being?"

"It's too early to tell you at the moment. All will be revealed later when we can guarantee our transmission won't be disrupted again. Rip that message from the data core, and store it someplace safe. I'll need it for when we meet."

"And when will that be?" She asked, performing her task.

"All in good time."

Samus sighed. "I wish you'd stop being vague about this."

"Then I would have to stop being Cenir."

"True." she agreed.

Samus returned to her ship, the trip back being uneventful and silent. She detached the ship from the docking ring, and sped away from the station. As the distance between her and the _Shinarr_ grew, the light in her eyes, and the tingling in her neck faded to nothingness. She could breathe easily again, with the pressure of finishing the mission gone.

"Don't get too comfortable, Samus. It's time for you to start the real work."

"No kidding? What you just had me do was _not_ for someone of my skill level. Give me an asteroid filled with Kriken or something."

Unbeknownst to Samus, Cenir had risen an eyebrow. "Interestingly enough, that's incredibly close to what your destination is."

Samus scowled. _I didn't mean it_. But she didn't say that.

"Bring up your galactic map."

Samus complied.

"You remember the area I showed you in our earlier meeting?"

"Of course." Samus pointed to an area near the galaxy's core. "It's right there. The location of Renick's old ship."

"Right, but you'll be heading to the old IBHA station instead." An area two lightyears away began blinking, and magnified itself. "It's overrun with Kriken at the moment. They claim to be scientists trying to gain information about the Omicron-class Metroids. But they're actually building a Phazon reactor. The same one De'Tan wanted to install in the _Shinarr_ seven years ago."

"How did they find the plans for that?"

"They didn't. They stole them during the Betrayal. Many failures have held them back, but this time, they're actually going to finish it. I want you to steal the schematics and destroy the reactor."

"Why not steal the reactor itself?" Samus engaged the hyperdrive, and shot into multicolored oblivion."Surely you don't mean to build a completely new one by yourself."

"I have no intention of _building_ anything." Cenir corrected. "I merely have need of the schematics."

"Then can you tell me what you'll do with them?" She asked.

"No. Or at least not yet."

_Naturally_.


	11. Assault

Renick's ship watched the hyperspace lanes. Unpowered, floating in the endless black of space. The ship wasn't nearly as badly damaged as anyone thought it was. A few broken circuits here and there, maybe a hull breach where it wouldn't matter. It was fully functional, and had been for years. It rotated slowly at a fixed rate. An unnatural fixed rate. It had been doing this since Cenir left it there three years ago. Yes, he had lied to Samus. Not much of surprise considering much of what he had told Samus was a lie. But what was lie and what was fact? Cenir wasn't sure of it himself.

Inside a power-suit of his own, he watched Samus as she traversed the great distance to the IBHA station on the HUD of his visor. A line was drawn between her location and destination, and was shrinking at a rapid rate. Soon, she would be locked into his cause, and forced to work to his ends. After all, manipulating people was what he did. Even Samus had fallen for his deception, despite her misgivings about him.

_Nobody is ever completely immune._

Cenir concentrated on the beings aboard the IBHA station. All of them were confused over his disappearance. He felt the search teams looking for him aboard the station, but not in the surrounding space. He would go undiscovered until he called Samus to him. _Good._

* * *

One hour passed, and nobody saw her. A second hour passed, yet still she remained hidden. Samus' ship sat on it's side, landing gear clamped to the outer frame of her old quarters. The window was gone, which worked to her advantage, and there didn't seem to be any sign of recent use; another advantage. But why had she been sitting there for two hours? Simple, Samus wasn't in the ship. She was pulling herself along the surface of the station, looking for a significant place to surprise them. Using her X-ray visor, she was hoping top find a corridor, or room, loaded with Kriken. She would then breach the wall, and let the vacuum do most of the work for her. Unless, of course, their exoskeletons protected against that. In said case, she could always blast her way through. Not as easy, but equally effective.

Finally, she came upon the perfect spot. It was a research lab, from the objects strewn about the room, with twenty-six Kriken working on a strange device. Maybe it was the Phazon Reactor. That would be ideal. But things are rarely ideal. Not wanting to waste time, she started grinding through the hull. It was thicker than she had originally thought, and would take longer to get through than expected. That was a bad thing. If she took too long, they would hear the sound vibrating through the hull, and possibly sound off the alarm. Samus increased the speed of her spin. While she spun, she caught a glimpse as one scientist looked up from his work, studying the point through which she was about to break in.

_Poor guy._ She thought was she tore into the room, shredding the observant Kriken. There was a moment when everything seemed to slow down, and she could see the expressions of surprise on the her enemies' faces. Well, the way they whipped their heads around was what really betrayed surprise(Kriken faces are impossible for humans to read). Then they were sucked out the hole, one by one falling into darkness. But one Kriken stayed behind. His legs were set into the floor to anchor him against the escaping air that tried to pull him with it. His floating head stared at Samus with a lone eye, studying her, and assessing the potential threat she posed.

_So, they_ can _withstand vacuum_.

For a moment, each stood their ground, legs spread wide like cowboys in an old western. At the same time, they brought their weapons to bear on each other. An arm-cannon loaded with a standard power-beam, the other a deadly sniper weapon of perfect accuracy. Charging their respective weapons, they began circling around the room, which was now free of air, so each moved a little more smoothly than normal. Tension built between the two, it was a matter of who would shoot first, and if the targeted would dodge. Both hoped they would be victorious.

Samus thrust her left hand foreward, grabbing the enemy with her grapple-beam, and pulled him towards her. The Kriken, his wits still about him, released his weapon's charge harmlessly into the floor. Or at least it should've been harmless. The air from the chamber below came rushing through the hole and into the vacuum, blowing him out of Samus' grip. He attached himself to the ceiling, and looked down at where Samus stood, a ball of pure energy glowing from the tip of her weapon.

For a moment, they stood motionless, each studying the other. Then, without warning, the Kriken warrior lunged forward, it's sharp tipped arms aimed forward at her face. Samus blocked the blow with her hand and arm-cannon catching it in the chest, and threw the insect to the side before blasting it with the charged bolt. Or, at least she attempted to blast it. The Kriken was on his feat again, and out of the way by the time her attack fell on the now unoccupied space.

Samus looked around for where he might have gone to. But she saw nothing. She walked around the room's perimeter, hoping to spot the warrior, but only saw what had already been in it. That and some Triskellion tracks in the carpet.

_Wait...!!_

Samus jumped out of the way just in time, as a flying red blur wizzed by her. Upon hitting the ground, her finger spasmed and fired a super missle into the floor, throwing her across the room. Samus, a little stunned, picked herself up off the floor, only to be thrown back down again a moment later by the red blur of a Kriken.

A warning flashed on Samus' visor. Her missle rack had been damaged. She brought the arm-cannon up to her visor for a visual check. Sure enough, there was a large chunk missing, exposing the gloved hand within.

_Damn you_. She thought at the Kriken. That wasn't going to be easy to fix. Especially if she wound up dead. The Kiriken made another pass at her, but she caught it this time with her left hand. It's Triskellion form allowed it invisibility when motionless, as well as a speedy and deadly attack.

It tried to resist her hold by pushing away. Samus countered by pulling on it. She jammed the nozzle of her weapon into it's face, and tried to fire. The Kriken stopped resisting unexpectedly and pulled itself to her. The arm-cannon slipped away from it's head, and the Kriken shot past her shoulder, damaging the right shoulder-guard. A warning about life support failure displayed itself on Samus' visor, as well as a countdown until her air ran out. Six minutes. She had to end this, fast. It had the advantage, but Samus wasn't dumb enough to continue the fight.

Wishing she didn't have to retreat, Samus ran towards the door. The Kriken followed.


	12. Breathless

Her hand hit the door switch, but nothing happened. She pressed it again. Still nothing. She would have tried to pry the door open, but with only one hand free, that was impossible. Still, she could always blast the door open. That was assuming that the Kriken would let her.

The Kriken slammed into her side, pushing her away from the door. Samus slammed into a wall, leaving another dent of her shape in it. That little insect wasn't making things easy on her. She would have to dodge it while trying to shoot the door open. Samus checked her missle ammo to see if there was at least one left. There were five left. Just enough for a super missle. _Perfect_.

Samus looked up just as the Kriken lunged at her again, held up her left hand, and balled into a fist. It's face flew smack into it, satisfying Samus with the sight of it's exoskeleton cracking. She wiggled her hand into it and yanked, _hard_. Samus had expected to tear it's head off, or even tear a larger crack into it's face, but only succeeded in throwing the being towards the hole through which she had come. Good enough.

Samus leapt from her dent in the wall, and into the air, hoping to land a super missle on the door. But the Kriken came back. It latched itself onto her arm-cannon, and dug one sharp tipped arm into the nozzle. The auto-diag in her suit registered the weapon as being jammed and shut it down. Samus swore. It would take four minutes for it run another diagnostic and then restart it. Samus checked the timer on her air. Four minutes, and five seconds. It was going to be close. Damn close.

Both of them laned ina heap on the floor, stunning them for but an instant before Samus regained her attack posture. The Kriken remained securely attached to her. Anger driven adrenaline pumping through her, Samus brought the useless weapon down upon the creature's head, and was yet again rewarded with the sight of more exoskeleton falling off. But it didn't let go. Instead, it tried to get even with her, attempting to puncture her visor. Samus responded by kicking it in the chest, making it revert back to it's normal biped form. She followed up the attack with another kick to it's face. But it had recovered by then, and grabbed her foot. It then proceeded to flip her around, and swung her into a workbench.

While in mid-air, three feet from the workbench, Samus fired her grapple beam, and used it to drag the Kriken with her. Flailing around in the air for a moment, both of them fell to the floor, smashing the wrkbench to pieces. Both struggled to keep the other from getting up. The Kriken held her by the throat, and she had it by the head, still hoping to pull it from it's neckless body. And she did. Her arms jerked back, nearly throwing the head, and the being's body instantly went limp. Samus pulled it's arms from her neck, and looked into the lone eye of the alien face, glaring at it. It had tried to kill her, and it had failed. Or, at least, that's what she thought. As she cast the head aside, the thing sprouted legs. It crawled along the floor, heading towards it's body despite Samus' attempts to smash it. Samus checked the status on her weapon, hoping she could fire it up and destroy the body. But no such luck, two minutes still remained until recharge.

The Kriken was back up now, only it's head no longer floated in space without a neck. The legs instead held it onto the body. Clearly it had decided to take caution. But not enough. Samus lashed out with her grapple-beam again, grabbing it by the head, and yanked as hard as she could. The Kriken anticipated the move, and grabbed a nearby desk with it's feet, allowing Samus' own stregnth to shove it in her direction. The Kriken had probably hoped to make her flinch and release it, but Samus refused to be intimidated. She continued to pull on the Kriken, dragging it with the desk towards her, knowing full well what she was doing.

Right before the desk and Kriken hit her, Samus switched to morphball mode, allowing their momentum to ram them into her. A small shockwave extended outward from the point of impact, and the desk exploded into thousands of shards. Among them were pieces of Kriken exoskeleton. Samus, now out of morphball and on the other side of the room, watched the cloud of miniscule debris carefully, keeping an eye out for any kind of movement. She didn't take her focus away for a moment, only sparing a tiny glance at the timers on both sides of her visor's HUD. Forty seconds until her air ran out. Thirty-five seconds until arm cannon rearmament. She waited for her enemy to resurface.

Thirty seconds of air left. Twenty. Fifteen. Ten...

The Kriken flew up out of the ground, punching a new hole in from the room below. It's chest was torn open, damage from Samus' bomb, a scab of frozen black blood the only thing keeping it's organs in. The angered being lunged at her again with it's sharp tipped arms, this time aiming at her heart. It wanted to do to her what she had done to it. But Samus knew that with revenge came blindness. In the moment before it would have struck, Samus lunged her arm cannon foreward, and punched it in the gut. The injured insect flew across the room, landing in front of the door. It had enough strength left in it to look up just in time to watch the super missle pierce it's face, and burrow through to the door beyond. The brilliant explosion forced Samus to look away. Metal shrapnel flew across the room, along with the remains of the Kriken warrior. Samus started to smile until the warm blast of air from the corridor... didn't come. Panicking, she ran to the door and stuck her arm through it. There was no forcefield, no magcon field, absolutely nothing to keep air from coming in. The air that she so desperately needed, simply wasn't there.

_They vented it. They knew I was out of air._ It was the only answer. Why else would the room be full of air when she came in, but the corridor outside be devoid of it?

The timer ran out, and a constant beep noise filled her ears. Her last hope, faded into despair. Soon, what little air in her power-suit would be used up, and then... It would be over. The last thing Samus saw, was the reflection of a blue light in her eyes. Then she blacked out. But it wasn't the usual blacking out sensation that she was used to. It was somehow different this time.


End file.
